Hello lovely customers and Happy New Year! I’m certain that I’m not the only one that’s happy to see the back of 2020, but also probably not the only one feeling anxious about 2021 in light of the recent spike in Covid-19 cases and the new national lockdown. I do hope that you are all keeping well, staying safe and healthy.
I wonder how many of you are trying Veganuary this year, or even Dry January? I’ve seen a bit on social media about how this January we should all just give ourselves a break, cut the super intense workouts, crazy restrictive diets and just love ourselves and nurture our bodies after the year we’ve had, and I have to say I agree!
My January mindset is to be the best version of myself that I possibly can, and this includes diet and nutrition but also making time for sleep, joy, play and rest. As you well know, stress and lack of sleep are the enemies of immunity and lord knows we all need to be supporting our immune systems like it’s our 9 to 5 job right now.
So no, in case you hadn’t already guessed, I won't be trying Veganuary this year, or Dry January for that matter and instead I’ll be focusing on optimum health and nourishing my body. And if that just coincidentally includes increasing my vegetable intake and decreasing alcohol then so be it!
My thoughts on Veganuary
If Veganuary were just a gentle push to get us to increase our plant foods, diversify our diet and generally eat a lot more colour and variety than I would be on board (and in fact I am on board with all of those things!) However, Veganuary has become synonymous with that age old January-deprivation mindset, in my opinion...a chance to chastise ourselves for the indulgent meals we consumed over the festive period - and like I said, I just don’t think that January 2021 is the time for punishment!
Secondly, it fails to take into account personal health concerns. It’s 100% safe to say that we’d all flourish with more veg in our lives, but it’s not 100% safe to say that we’ll all flourish when cutting out animal products from our diets. We need to remember our individual requirements for protein and other nutrients, and also think about the provenance of any animal products we consume. In my opinion the density of nutrition that we can gain from grass-fed beef or wild Alaskan salmon is unparalleled in comparison to an overly processed vegan meat substitute.
It is possible to be a thriving, healthy vegan consuming nutrient dense, organic plant foods but it’s much easier, if you’re just trying it for a month, to just buy the supermarket’s latest vegan burger substitute and add some sweet potato fries - not the healthiest of meals.
So instead of Veganuary, I’ll be doing my same old thing of using high quality animal products as a condi-meat, not the main event, and loading up my plate with a rainbow of plant foods at the same time. My focus is always on colour, variety and abundance of plant foods, lowering sugar and supporting optimum health.
